


starboy

by Scrivoio



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Keith Is Crushing Harder Than a 12 Year Old Girl, M/M, Pining, Tooth Rotting Fluff, and he was definitely into like keg stands and shit like, battleshots because shiro was probably a frat boy, but it's not really sexual? at all?, but not really?, but yeah, gays in space, gays in the garrison, honestly im such a slut for frat boy shiro like i cant even, i banged this shit out in like 30 minutes, i mean it's really light, ill edit all the spelling errors tomorrow morning i promise, it's mostly just keith and lance like everyone else is just kinds mentioned???, its pretty gay, keith is a good friend, keith is very gay, little bit of langst, lots of pining, misses his family, mostly a keith-centric fic, my gay ass needs to go to sleep its like 2am i hate everything, so many gays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 19:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scrivoio/pseuds/Scrivoio
Summary: Lance had looked ethereal looking up at the stars, into the abyss of space with such wonder in his eyes it made Keith’s heart skip a beat. Lance looked at the stars as if they held all the answers he sought, like they had given him life and could take it away just as easily. He looked at the stars like he loved them with everything he had, like he knew them but still ached to learn all their secrets. Keith had hoped Lance would look at him like that someday.[basically, it's really gay and im really tired and also this is unedited and tooth-rottingly fluffy and like honestly i'm sorry it's mostly garbage but that might be my sad excuse for self-esteem talking there's no way to be sure at this point]





	starboy

Keith lied when he told Lance he didn’t remember who he was.

 

He remembered Lance McClain from the Garrison, back before Shiro was anything more than a lonely orphan’s best friend and Keith was nothing more than a lonely orphan with a crush on the silver-tongued, fast-witted, beautiful flirt in his physics class.

 

He remembered not being able to sleep one night for the fifth time that week. He went on a walk, deciding he’d bothered Shiro enough. Keith had gone to the observatory- it was always quiet, always empty at this time of the night. The desolation of the desert called out to him almost as much as the infinitude of the cosmos.

 

He hadn’t been alone, though.

 

There sat Lance McClain, in the middle of the floor, surrounded by the stars like he belonged in their midst. Like it was the only place he was ever meant to be.

 

Lance had looked ethereal looking up at the stars, into the abyss of space with such wonder in his eyes it made Keith’s heart skip a beat. Lance looked at the stars as if they held all the answers he sought, like they had given him life and could take it away just as easily. He looked at the stars like he loved them with everything he had, like he knew them but still ached to learn all their secrets. Keith had hoped Lance would look at him like that someday.

 

After that, he began to notice Lance more, notice the little things about him, the silly things. Lance always smirked with the left side of his mouth. He always pointed at people with adorably ironic (or so Keith thought- he might be biased on the ‘adorably’ bit) finger guns. He liked strawberry ice cream, but he hated chocolate. He thought Kill Bill was better than Pulp Fiction (possibly the only thing about him Keith disliked). He liked shrimp gumbo because it reminded him of his next door neighbor back when he lived in Louisiana with his family.

 

Every fact was so little, so inconsequential, yet so monumental. The little bits, by themselves, were nothing, but when they were put together, they became Lance McClain, and there was nothing that Keith loved more.

 

_Keith loved._

 

He fell in love because Lance was beautiful; his smile was sunshine, his laugh was a breath of air when Keith didn’t realize he was even drowning, everything about him lit up Keith’s world in a way few things ever had. Lance was loud and playful and happy and _wholesome_. He was everything Keith was not, yet Keith didn’t mind.

 

Keith wasn’t used to being in love.

 

He decided he rather liked it.

 

Everything was spectacular for awhile- Shiro and Keith stayed up every Friday night getting wasted playing Battleshots- a game invented by none other than Takashi Shirogane himself, the man, the myth, the legend. Keith pined over Lance from afar, never feeling quite confident enough to engage in conversation. His grades were good, his flying was better.

 

Everything was looking up for Keith.

 

Then Shiro was offered a spot on the team for the Kerberos mission.

 

He went missing, and Keith decided he didn’t have time for love, or Lance McClain, no matter how much he liked it. Not when his brother, his only family even if not by blood, was alone in space with no one to look for him.

 

No one except Keith.

 

So Keith, bound by a sense of honor and duty and love, left the Garrison to find Shiro. Only, when he did, he also found Lance McClain.

 

His heart had stopped, his blood running cold in his veins because this was the boy he was in love with, even after all this time, and he was _here_ and all of Keith’s repressed feelings began to bubble dangerously close to the surface.

 

So he panicked.

 

Pretended not to know who Lance was, was almost- disappointed, maybe?- when Lance bought it.

 

They didn’t talk about it again.

 

But now, here Keith was, almost a year later, in the castle ship’s observatory with none other than Lance McClain in the middle of the floor, all alone, looking more defeated than Keith had even known he had a capacity for.

 

This time, the cosmos didn’t make him look infinite, it just made him look small and lonely and sad.

 

It broke Keith’s heart a little bit.

 

He was muttering, Keith realized. It sounded like… Spanish? Names, maybe? Keith strained to hear more.

 

 _Maria, Sophia, Cisco, Gavin, Diego, Mama, Papa… Maria, Sophia, Cisco, Gavin, Diego, Mama, Papa_ , the mantra repeated, over and over, as if he were trying, desperately, to ingrain the names into his mind. _His family_ , Keith realized. _He doesn’t want to forget them._

 

If people were flames, Keith reasoned, Lance would be a blaze; bright as the sun, too hot, too bright, too much to be _real._ His heat was infectious; every time Keith was by his side, he felt bulletproof. Like the world was his.

 

Now, though, he had to be that way for Lance- steady and bright, enough to keep Lance going until he was strong enough to pull through. It was his turn to help Lance be bulletproof.

 

“Lance?”

 

He saw the Paladin's shoulders stiffen. “Mullet Man. What are you doing awake?”

 

Keith shrugged, even though he knew Lance couldn’t see him, that Lance hadn’t turned around yet. “Maybe I can’t sleep. Maybe I should be asking you the same question.”

 

Lance shrugged, looking at Keith this time, “Maybe my answer’s the same as yours.”

 

Keith sat down, looking at the pictures spread out in front of Lance. Photographs, faded colors and wrinkly edges, a bit worn, like they were taken out and shuffled often, but always gently treated. Well-loved.

 

“Your family?”

 

Lance nodded, a strange sort of smile on his face, one that made him look far older than he was. “I don’t want to forget them. Their names, their faces… They’re all I have, you know? And if I don’t make it back, I want to know what they look like. I want their faces burned into the backs of my eyelids so they’re the last thing I see.” He sighed, “It’s dumb, I know-”

 

“No.” Keith’s voice was firmer than he meant it to be. He winced, “I mean if I had anyone back on Earth that I cared about that much, or even at all, I’d probably do the same thing.”

 

Lance looked up at him, uncharacteristically straight-faced. “You don’t have anyone back on Earth?”

 

Keith shrugged, “Shiro’s my brother in all the ways that matter, even if it’s not by blood. He’s all I had until I joined the team. I don’t have anyone waiting up on me back home- no one will be disappointed if I don’t make it back.”

 

Lance frowned. “That’s not true. Shiro will be devastated. Pidge will miss you like hell, even if they pretend not to care. Hunk will _definitely_ cry. We need you. _I_ need you. Ergo, you are not allowed to die.”

 

 _I need you_.

 

“We’re your family now, Mullet Man. Plus, I’m pretty sure my parents will love you more than they love me.”

 

_Family._

 

“Your… Parents?”

 

“Yeah, dummy. When we get home? You’re gonna have to come by the ranch. My _abuelita_ makes the best _empanadas._ You’ll love Sophia, too. She’s kinda like you, you know? Reckless, stupid, brave.”

 

_When we get home._

 

“You think… You think I’m brave?”

 

“Yeah, man, I mean, you are.”  


“Really?”

 

“I mean it. Stupidly so. I mean, you’re a real _idiota_ sometimes, honestly, kind of a hothead, but nobody can be perfect.”

 

_You are._

 

“Tell me about them.”

 

Lance raised an eyebrow in question.

 

“Your family. Tell me about them. What are they like?”

 

Lance launched into a story about his brother’s friend’s cousin stealing a truck full of chickens in Mexico, his eyes shining. He talked about his _abuelita_ and her cooking, and his _mama_ and how she gave the best advice.

 

Lance talked about his family and slowly stopped looking so alone among the stars. Instead, he became one of them.

 

Keith looked in his eyes and felt _home_ more acutely than he had in his life. _I love this boy_ , he realized.

 

And Lance smiled at him and made it all alright.


End file.
